


hello, goodbye

by castielfalls



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 15:51:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17963510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castielfalls/pseuds/castielfalls
Summary: his eyes stare where klaus can’t see. his soul goes where klaus can’t follow.





	hello, goodbye

Klaus did not expect to land in the middle of a campsite. It’s the last place he would go. Endless forestation and insects that bother him relentlessly. He sits up, shutting the black, dirtied suitcase. The ground is gritty and his elbows are scratched from the rough landing. He feels out of his element in the large tent. A quick glance tells him he’s not in one person’s tent, there’s probably twenty or so men in there with him. In other situations, Klaus may have been excited by such a revelation, but he’s fairly worried about where he is.

The man in the bed nearest to him sits up, props himself up on his elbows, and squints at him through the darkness. Klaus tilts his head in question; he does not recognise this man. The dog tag around hisneck glistens only slightly, what little light that makes it into the tent hitting the metallic surface. It’s when Klaus spots the army attire next to the man’s bed that he realises where he is.

An officer comes in and commands them to get up and get out. Klaus stands, picking up the suitcase, trying to find a way out of the tent which doesn’t require him to get past the officer. The officer spots him, however, and orders him to get in uniform. Klaus’ protests go ignored, and a soldier gently places a helmet on his head, giving him an apologetic smile. He knows Klaus doesn’t belong here. Another man passes him spare camouflage pants, and he quickly changes into the army gear, not knowing what else he can do.

He’s pushed onto a bus with other soldiers, real soldiers. He feels out of place. His arms are twigs compared to the other men. They look as though they were built like tanks. The soldier from earlier moves through the bus to take the seat next to Klaus. He gives him a smile, asking, “You’re not from here, are you?”

“No. No, I’m not,” Klaus answers. Truth be told, he’s nervous. Sure, he’d fought as a child, forced into missions by his adoptive father, but he’d weened off that life as he’d grown older. It’s been a while since he did anything of the vigilante sort. Or the athletic sort, anyway.

“My name’s Dave,” he introduces warmly, holding out a hand.

Klaus takes it, smiling, “Klaus.” As cliche as it sounds, Klaus feels like their hands fit perfectly.

* * *

Dave invites him to a bar. It’s one of their rare nights off.

Soul Kitchen by The Doors plays quietly on the speakers. Klaus and Dave drink shots with their arms interlocked. There’d been little to no space between them the whole night. Klaus had felt like nothing before. He feels like gravity is pushing him down, while he opposes its laws.

It must not be the side effects of the drinks. Klaus is in love.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” Dave asks, when they take a break from dancing to rest at the bar.

Klaus smiles, answering, “Hell yeah. The drinks, the dancing, the music, the company... All of it. I love it.”

Dave wants to say something else, but girls pull them back to the dance floor. They oblige, but dancing with the girls eventually results in them gravitating to each other once more.

“Do you want to go somewhere quieter? I think I’ve danced enough tonight,” Dave asks, grinning. Klaus nods, grateful to finally catch a moment alone with Dave.

They find a quiet area. It’s near the washrooms, but it’s not anything they can’t take. They’ve been fighting a war, after all.

“I liked tonight,” Klaus starts them off.

Dave nods, smiling, “Same here. You’re so nice to be around. You know, the war zone is always bad... Being with you is a nice change of pace.”

“So what is this between us?” Klaus asks. He’d liked to not have been so direct with the question, but he ached to know.

“I don’t know,” Dave answers after a moment’s hesitation. “But I’d... I’d like it to be more than friendship.”

Klaus’ heart beats loudly in his ears. Dave’s smile sends it into overdrive. They both dive in for the kiss at the same time; it is slow, full of meaning. Nothing like the hungry, lustful kisses Klaus had been used to getting. This time, he knows that the person kissing him cares about him. He feels safe in Dave’s arms, feels at home kissing Dave,

When Dave pulls away, face red from love and drink, smile lighting up the room, Klaus knows he’s a goner.

He knows he’s never going to love someone else like this ever again. Dave is it.

* * *

Night falls; Klaus feels like he’s been grieving for hours, his strength completely gone. He can feel the camouflage paint melting off his skin, sweat and tears tinted shades of green. 

Men are gone. Where are they when he needs them?

He screams. Help! Medic! Help! He screams over and over.

Nothing on the horizon. Nothing in the sky.

He implores the lofty sky, the endless gunfire, the other soldiers; all are deaf. He begs the wind to sweep him away. He asks of the rain to stop the bleeding. They obey only the infinite. They heed not the words of a mortal.

Around him, darkness, screams, wild, the ceaseless fire from the enemies. Beneath him, the devouring abyss of Dave’s still body.Within him, denial, endless sorrow. No rest. The icy blood, slick on his hands, paralyses him. His hands grasp and tug at Dave’s military wear. No hand rests over his in comfort. Ben is not around to placate him, he was not dead back then. Not even alive.

Klaus yields to devastation. He lets the darkness consume him, drag him down under. The men who pull him off Dave’s body do nothing to separate Klaus’ soul from Dave’s own. Klaus pushes himself off the ground, stands up with no defences. His rifle falls from his hands, his helmet not straightened on his head. Soldiers yell at him to get down; Klaus does not listen. He seeks death, no longer resists, no longer hiding. Gives up, lets go, tumbles past mourning straight into overwhelming grief, where his mind has no say in what how his heart propels him forward.

“What the hell is war for?” Klaus screams. Some soldiers try to pull him back down. “What’s the point?”

Only bullets answer him. The soldiers finally succeed in dragging him back onto the ground.

“What were you thinking?” one shouts at him. “You could have died!”

Klaus turns back to Dave, lying still and lifeless, and murmurs, “Would anyone even notice if I did?” He crawls back over to Dave’s body. His hands find their way to Dave’s cheeks.

His eyes stare where Klaus can’t see. His soul goes where Klaus can’t follow.

* * *

Klaus lands on the bus, clutching the suitcase tightly. The woman sitting across from him gives him a strange look, but he’s used to such glances. There’s a familiar weight on his chest, from Dave’s dog tag. He’d decided against washing it before putting it on. It’s dirty, but it’s Dave. His Dave.

Klaus remembers them dancing in the bar. He thinks of Dave’s warm body next to his, every exhale like a new breath of life. A crowded room and Klaus always finds his way back to Dave’s side. He’s like the water and Dave, the shore; no matter what, always back to Dave. No matter what.

He feels buried by the infinities that did not heed his begging; the wind passes through him like he is nothing. The sky remains out of his reach. The suitcase is dirty from the time he’d spent in the army. His tattoo is displayed on his left shoulder. The dog tag shifts about from the bus’ movement.

Klaus tries to resist, tries to keep it in until he is back at the Umbrella Academy, but the despair consumes him faster than his brain is willing to fight. Klaus is tired of fighting. He’d done nothing but fight since crash landing next to Dave’s bunk.

People continue to find ways to disappoint Klaus. What the hell is war for? All it does is destroy good people and crush souls along the way. War leaves destruction in its wake and sorrow in its sleep. There is an emptiness within Klaus, and every heartbeat echoes loudly. Every heartbeat a reminder of the one that stopped. A reminder of the one he will never hear again.

Klaus begins to cry.

He sobs until he feels like he has nothing left. His tears taste of salt on his lips. His palms have imprints left by clutching the dog tag. He cries until he’s emptier than before.

The world is immeasurable misery.

* * *

Klaus asks Diego to drop him off at the veteran’s bar. He’d always seen it whenever he passes through, but he’d never been interested in going in until now. Diego follows out of curiosity; he’s known Klaus his whole life, and he finds it strange that he’d gained an interest in a veteran’s bar.

When Diego enters, he sees Klaus staring wistfully at a photograph on the noticeboard. He stands unmoving, and his fingers ghost over someone in the photograph. A veteran is telling Klaus to get out, veteran only, and Klaus ignores him.

Diego steps in to placate the veteran, tell him that Klaus isn’t feeling well and that they’ll leave. That there was no need to start a fight. The veteran agrees, and then he demands an apology. Diego turns to Klaus, considering his options. Klaus looks devastated, an expression Diego had never seen on his brother’s face before. It’s not an expression Diego likes. It feels strange, seeing Klaus like this. Diego swallows his pride, mutters a quick apology, and reaches out for Klaus to bring him out.

The veteran pushes it further, tells him he wants Klaus’ apology, not Diego’s. The veteran says Klaus is sure as hell not a veteran, and has no right to be there.

Then Klaus turns around and punches him in the face. A fight breaks out, and of course, Diego instinctively takes his brother’s side. He tries not to hurt the veterans too badly, just gets them out of the way without fatally injuring them like he can, and gets Klaus out.

When they’re back in the car, Diego asks Klaus what’s wrong. Klaus lies. It’s obvious he is; Klaus is his brother. He’d grown up with him. He knows how Klaus is.

“I’m okay,” Klaus says.

“I saw how you were in there! You are not okay!” Diego insists. “What’s wrong?”

It takes a while to get Klaus to open up, but eventually, Klaus blurts out, “I lost someone, okay?” Diego stares at him quietly, wanting him to elaborate, and Klaus mutters, “I lost the only person I ever loved more than myself.”

Diego doesn’t manage to get anything else about it out of him.

* * *

Klaus stands outside the nightclub. He doesn’t want to go in. He’d been trying to stay sober.

“Klaus...” Ben starts.

“I need to get Luther,” Klaus says. “I have to go in.”

Klaus had begged Luther not to go. He’d begged Luther not to follow in his footsteps. Luther went anyway, with the ego that suited the title of ‘Number One’. And of course, Klaus felt responsible. He felt that he should be the one to bring him home.

He goes in, and immediately, the strobe lights and heavy bass sucks him in. Ben is tuned out completely. He spots Luther with a girl. He calls out to him, but is ignored.

Then he spots a single pill, on the floor. He pushes against the urge, he tries, but with Dave gone, his willpower is not as strong. Nobody would notice if he died. They hadn’t noticed when he’d been kidnapped. Diego’s friend had been the one to save him, not his siblings. Luther certainly hadn’t cared enough about Klaus’ sobriety when he’d decided to come to the nightclub.

Klaus crawls across the club floor, reaching for the pill. Just one. Just one more. Nobody will know.

Someone stops him. Dave looks down at the pill and shakes his head faintly before he walks closer. Klaus stares at him, frozen in place. His Dave.

And then Dave’s on the ground, in army gear, bleeding. Klaus takes his face into his hands, tears spilling from his eyes as he begs Dave not to leave him this time. Dave whispers, just barely, that he loves him. Then Klaus’ head is no longer on Dave’s chest; it presses against the cold floor.

He looks up, and sees three guys heading towards Luther. They seem intimidating, like they’re going to pick a fight with him.

“Luther!” Klaus calls out to warn his brother. Luther doesn’t hear him (or doesn’t bother to listen), so Klaus takes it into his own hands and grabs the one nearest to Luther. He’s smacked right in the head, and he collides with the ground.

* * *

The little girl on the bicycle tells Klaus, “He’s waiting for you.”

Klaus runs to the hair salon, a grin growing on his face. He’d never felt so free before.

“Dave!” Klaus calls out when he runs in. “I’m sorry I took so long.”

His father’s face makes Klaus crumble. He feels like screaming. Even now, he can’t see his beloved.

* * *

When Klaus comes back to life, he’s not surprised to find out that Luther had left without him. Of course he did. He doesn’t care about him. Klaus goes back to the Umbrella Academy.

He would say ‘home’, but home was Dave, and Dave was gone.

* * *

“So what was her name?” Diego asks, as he ties Klaus up. 

“ _His_ name was Dave,” Klaus says. “We soldiered together in the A Shau Valley in the Mountain of the Crouching Beast.”

Diego smiles slightly, a silent act of acceptance. He doesn’t mind Klaus liking men. Though he never suspected it, it just didn’t come as a surprise. Klaus had always just done his thing, whatever it was. Diego says, while making sure the knots won’t come undone, “He must have been real special to put up with you.”

“He was kind, strong, vulnerable...” Klaus describes, blinking away tears. “... and beautiful. So beautiful.” Diego glances up at Klaus, seeing the despair on his face. Klaus says sadly, “And I was foolish enough to follow him all the way to the front line.”

Dave smiles at him from across the room.

He whispers, “I love you.”


End file.
